


Overcome Chihoko

by reginar, renaissance



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Humor, Illustrated, M/M, Misunderstandings, Morning After, Public Nudity, Yuri!!! On Stage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-29
Updated: 2017-04-29
Packaged: 2018-10-25 08:28:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10760484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reginar/pseuds/reginar, https://archiveofourown.org/users/renaissance/pseuds/renaissance
Summary: Yuuri has the wordsOVERCOME CHIHOKOwritten on his back, a pair of underpants on his head, and apparently Viktor's gone missing.





	Overcome Chihoko

**Author's Note:**

> in light of the brilliance that was learning about the yuri!!! on stage drama second hand through other people's tweets, we bring you an R & R production: art by reginar, words by renaissance. parts of this fic were jossed within minutes of completion but it remains true to the spirit of the storyline :)
> 
> edit: now with [podfic](http://vocaroo.com/i/s0astFYVStxs) by a reader who wishes to remain anonymous!!

* * *

 

Yuuri has a tortured relationship with mornings after. This one is particularly bad. There are stars blinking in and out of his vision as he sluggishly forces his eyes open—what time is it?—and he feels like something crawled onto his head and died, although it’s probably just his legendary bed hair.

It’s nothing new. He’s had his fair share of hangovers and a long history of blackouts, gaps in his memory wide enough to fit sixteen flutes of champagne and the entire city of Sochi. This hangover is different, though, because he’s definitely in Hasetsu, surrounded by friends and family, the _last_ place he wants to be seen acting this unprofessionally. At least he made it back to his room. He takes solace in the familiar walls, covered in posters of Viktor, and—

Wait. Where _is_ Viktor?

Their time in Hasetsu has, so far, been idyllic, and for all the hard work they’ve been putting into preparing for Viktor And Friends, Yuuri’s been working Viktor just as hard in the bedroom and every other night they’ve driven each other to the point of exhaustion and collapsed in a sweaty heap on this very bed that Yuuri’s in lying now, distinctly unsweaty and with a conspicuous lack of the warm body he’s come to expect beside him.

He gets up, limbs stiff, and stumbles out the door and down the corridor towards the bathroom. He doesn’t stop to check what he’s wearing, if anything, but he doesn’t feel quite cold enough to be naked, so that’s a good sign. Still, he isn’t paying attention to where he’s walking, making the journey on autopilot. Just outside the bathroom door, he bumps into someone.

“What is on your _head_?”

“Huh?” Yuuri looks down to where the sound is coming from. He’s not wearing his glasses, but a second later he retroactively recognises his assailant’s voice. “Oh, Yurio. Good morning.”

“God, you’re a mess,” the other Yuri says.

“Thanks.”

Yuuri fishes around on top of his head and, sure enough, his fingers catch on something slight and silky. When he pulls the offending object down and scrutinises it, he recognises it immediately as a pair of tight black briefs. Viktor’s.

“Now, how did these get here?” Yuuri wonders.

The other Yuri shirks back. “I don’t want to know. You should probably wash your hair in the shower, though.”

“It’s alright,” Yuuri says, “they’re Viktor’s.” Nothing that hasn’t been in the vicinity of his face before.

As Yuuri turns to go into the bathroom, the other Yuri adds, “Might wanna wash your back, too.”

He’s gone faster than Yuuri can ask, “What’s on my back?” It doesn’t matter. He finds out soon enough. (He also finds out what he’s wearing—just his boxer briefs.) Turning around to inspect himself in the mirror, Yuuri sees someone’s scrawly, uppercase English handwriting on his back, reading _OVERCOME CHIHOKO_.

“What is _Chihoko_?” Yuuri asks his reflection.

Whatever it is, it sounds sinister enough without the angry face drawn below it. Something like a Shachihoko, maybe. Some sort of mythical beast he has to overcome? Did he get so drunk he imagined he was going on a mystical quest to slay a beast? And then, who was he with, who wrote all over him? That was probably Viktor, he reasons. Either way, he scrubs hard enough in the shower to get the offending words off his back, and out of spite, does not wash his hair.

Clean, properly dressed (albeit with a corner of Viktor’s briefs just sticking out of his pocket), and glasses back on his nose where they belong, Yuuri makes his way down to the dining room. It’s been packed at breakfast, what with most of the top singles figure skaters staying here for the competition—for the first time in living memory, Yu-topia Katsuki has had to _turn away_ guests. So Yuuri isn’t surprised that there’s a crowd, pausing in their chatter to stare as Yuuri enters.

Everyone is there. Except Viktor.

“There he is,” Chris says. “The man of the moment!”

“What do you mean?” Yuuri asks, squinting through his dirty lenses.

“Surely _you_ know where Viktor is,” Phichit says.

Yuuri gives them a bewildered look, and watches the same look cross their faces as they make eye-contact with each other. “What happened?”

Phichit clears his throat. “Well, here’s the thing, Yuuri. Viktor is—”

“He’s missing,” Minami says from another table, far too chipper for a morning after. “He hasn’t answered any of our calls! Oh, don’t worry, we looked in your room, but Chris said that Viktor always gets up early, so we thought he’d gone out, and that maybe he told you.”

“He didn’t tell me _anything_ ,” Yuuri says.

“Let me guess,” Phichit says. “You don’t remember anything that happened last night, do you?”

Yuuri thinks this is very unfair of Phichit, because it’s not exactly common knowledge that he’s a blackout drunk with a goldfish memory. Nonetheless, he says, “No, I don’t.

Chris summarises: “In short, we got wasted, took off our clothes, and Seung-gil kissed the rink manager’s husband. Everything is on Instagram, courtesy of Phichit, if you’d like to relive the evening in full.”

“I wouldn’t,” Yuuri says. The only person who looks like he’d like to revisit it _less_ is Seung-gil, furiously pretending he isn’t paying attention to their exchange.

“Pity,” Phichit says. “My photography skills really are unparalleled.”

Yuuri rolls his eyes. “How’s your memory? Do you have any idea why I woke up with _overcome Chihoko_ written on my back?”

“On your _back_?” Minami squeaks. “Can we see?”

“ _Overcome Chihoko_ ,” Phichit says, tapping at his chin. “Is Chihoko someone’s name?”

“One, I washed it off, and two, I have no idea,” Yuuri says. “It sounds made-up.”

Minami sighs. “No fair…”

“It might have something to do with whatever you and Viktor were arguing about,” Chris says. Offhandedly, like it’s no big deal.

It is a big deal.

“Arguing? Why were we arguing?” Yuuri asks. He doesn’t like to argue with Viktor. He likes knowing that they argued but having no memory of it even less.

“You were mostly flirting, if it makes you feel any better,” Chris says. “Then you both started taking off all of your clothes, and the next I heard, you were shouting at each other in a language that… didn’t sound like any real language at all, actually.”

Phichit’s eyes go wide as saucers. “You guys got _divorced_?”

“We’re not married,” Yuuri says, “yet.”

But it would be stupid to pretend he wasn’t panicking. He and Viktor must’ve had a fight so bad that Viktor stormed off somewhere, and now he’s nowhere to be seen. Which means it’s Yuuri’s fault. If only he remembered what he did, so he could make it right.”

“Then it can’t have been that bad,” Phichit says. “Maybe you can scroll through my Insta and retrace your steps.”

Yuuri is considering it—he’s also considering going down to the beach and walking into the waves and never returning—when the screen doors come clattering apart and Emil bursts in like he’s about to save the day.

“You’ll never guess what I saw on my run!” he says.

“Everything’s already on Insta,” Phichit says, rolling his eyes.

“Not this,” Emil says. “I saw Viktor—”

At this point, Yuuri’s brain runs through every possible end to Emil’s sentence in the microsecond between one word and the next: he saw Viktor waiting for a train with all his bags, ready to leave Hasetsu forever; he saw Viktor running through town naked, looking for his underpants from the night before; he saw Viktor lying dead in a ditch, or at least passed out. As it turns out, though, the truth is stranger than any of Yuuri’s anxious fictions.

“—naked on top of Hasetsu Castle!”

“ _What_?” Yuuri’s not sure who says it. Maybe he does. Maybe all of them do.

Phichit is the first one to form a coherent sentence: “Are you _sure_?”

“Dead certain,” Emil says. “I’d recognise him anywhere.”

“Maybe Yuuri should go see for himself, hmm?” Chris says. “After all, there’s no-one who’d recognise naked Viktor better than you.”

That last part is addressed directly to Yuuri and finished with a wink, and Yuuri wishes that he could melt into the floor and escape. But now everyone is looking at him expectantly; it leaves him with no choice.

“Okay, I’ll go” he says, “but I’ll be back in no time. It was probably a trick of the light, Emil—it would be hard to get up the walls of the castle, especially if you were drunk.”

“I swear by it,” Emil says. “Man, I should have taken a photo.”

“If it really is Viktor, I’ll bring back photographic evidence,” Yuuri says. He regrets it a second later—the sight of Viktor in the buff is not something he wants to share with anyone else—but everyone is looking at him expectantly now, so he can’t take it back. He adds, “But it won’t be.”

Hangover be damned, Yuuri practically runs to Hasetsu Castle. It’s a lovely, fresh day, and maybe he’d pause to enjoy it more if he wasn’t panicking about what he could’ve possibly argued with Viktor about, and where Viktor is now, and whether he’s okay. Yuuri hates how hopeless he feels, how pathetic it is that he gets drunk and forgetful like this. So long as he’s in control of his mind, he swears to himself that he’ll never do anything like this again.

The castle begins to loom atop its peak. As Yuuri gets closer, impossibly, he can make out a figure perched on the side of one edge of the lowest slanted roof around the side of the castle, thankfully not too near to the edge. And—yes, that’s definitely Viktor.

More worryingly than his precarious position is the fact that Viktor doesn’t so much as look down to acknowledge Yuuri on his approach. Wow, they must have really _fought_.

“Viktor!” Yuuri calls. He even waves. “ _Vitya_! Are you okay?”

When Viktor looks down, the expression on his face is unreadable. Probably because he’s so far away. “Is Chihoko better than this, Yuuri?” he calls back.

“Is this— _what_?” Yuuri furrows his brows, confused. “I could search the whole world; nobody’s better than you. What are you doing up there?”

Viktor looks touched by that, but he is so _naked_ , which kind of ruins the image.  “Enjoying the view,” he says.

“Chris told me we argued about something last night, but you know me, you know I never remember anything when I’m that drunk,” Yuuri says, imploring. “Please, just tell me what I did wrong, and I’ll try to fix it.”

“You kept talking about your _ex_ ,” Viktor says.

For a moment, Yuuri’s not sure if he’s heard correctly. “My ex? Viktor, you know I never dated anyone before you, right?”

“No, I don’t,” Viktor says irritably, “because you’ve always refused to tell me about your romantic history. And anyway, if you don’t have an ex, how come you kept talking about someone called Chihoko?”

“Chihoko!” Yuuri says. “You wrote that on my back! You wrote _overcome Chihoko_. But I don’t know what that means.”

“It means _get over your ex_ ,” Viktor says.

Yuuri thinks he understands, now, or at least understands better than he did before. “I don’t have any exes, and I’ve certainly never met anyone called Chihoko,” he says. “It isn’t even a real name.”

“Oh,” Viktor says. He looks like he feels very stupid—and good, Yuuri thinks, so he should. “Yuuri, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

“It’s okay,” Yuuri says quickly, cutting him off. He’s too tired for this. Anyway, they still haven’t solved the mystery of why Yuuri was talking about a Chihoko. Unless—

“Viktor, were we talking in Japanese?”

“Yes!” Viktor says, perking up a little. “You told me I’m getting good at it!”

“Clearly not good enough to understand me,” Yuuri says. “I must have been talking about something else, like a Shachihoko.”

Viktor sighs. “I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions. In my defence, I was very drunk. Maybe you can come up here and give me a Japanese lesson, hmm?”

Despite himself, Yuuri laughs. Viktor is ridiculous, but he can’t stay mad at him for long. “Sure,” Yuuri says. “What do you want to learn today?”

“Wait one second,” Viktor says. He leans over the edge and holds out one hand like a stop sign. “You have to take off all your clothes.”

It says a lot about their relationship that Yuuri almost doesn’t question it. Almost. “How come?” he asks.

“Well, I’m already enjoying the view up here,” Viktor says, “but I’d enjoy it even more if I got to look at you naked, too.”

Of all the possible reasons for his request, Viktor chose the most outlandish, and it flusters Yuuri like mad. Viktor could have at least told Yuuri it was so he didn’t feel so stupid himself—it doesn’t look like there’s anything else up there with him, no clothes to keep him warm, no phone to answer all the worried calls.

Yuuri lets a bit of silence stretch out between them. Viktor is looking at him expectantly. Then, sighing, Yuuri throws caution to the wind. He takes off all his clothes. Viktor is delighted—he applauds and whoops as Yuuri wedges his phone between his lips so that it hopefully won’t fall, and begins to scale the nearest tree, one with an overhanging branch that gives him just enough support to inch across it and jump onto the roof next to Viktor.

Once he’s up there, Yuuri can see Viktor in beautiful high definition, complete with last night’s tear tracks and a look of such worship on his face that Yuuri almost has to look away. He doesn’t, though. He takes his phone out of his mouth, rests it on a tile beside him, and kisses Viktor hard enough to make up for every argument they’ve ever had and will ever have again.

“So,” Viktor says, sporting a delightful full-body blush, “what’s a Shachihoko?”

“It’s a mythical creature, like a tiger with the body of a fish,” Yuuri explains. “I don’t know why I could’ve been talking about them, but—oh!”

He picks up his phone and turns over his shoulder, taking a photo at an awkward angle so he can capture the very top of Hasetsu castle. Then, he zooms in on one of the cornices at the very apex where the two sides of the sloped roof meet.

Showing the picture to Viktor, Yuuri says, “One of these.”

“Wow! Just like a gargoyle,” Viktor says. “Maybe you were trying to tell me about Hasetsu Castle, and I subconsciously understood, so that’s why I came here.”

Yuuri raises an eyebrow. “Unlikely.”

“A boy can dream,” Viktor says.

“Oh, by the way, I brought you the pair of underpants that ended up on my head last night,” Yuuri says. “They’re down there in my trouser pocket. And while I have my phone out, I promised the others a photo of you, to prove that you really were the naked figure on top of Hasetsu Castle.”

“I guess I’m a mythical creature too, now,” Viktor says. “Okay! Let’s take a selfie!”

He takes command of the phone and makes sure the angle is right for the picture. After some prodding, Yuuri is convinced to upload it to Instagram, amidst a flurry of notifications from concerned fans asking where Viktor is. (Apparently Phichit’s extensive documentation covers more than just last night.) Yuuri ignores the questions, and captions the photo: _found him :)_

The first comment, seconds later, is from Phichit, asking why they’re both shirtless, but Yuuri doesn’t reply. He switches his phone off and leaves it to one side—right now, he has to apologise to Viktor for fighting with him, and for getting drunk enough to forget about it. Besides, he’s up here, so high above the town with the sea glistening sky-blue in the distance and fading seamlessly into the horizon, with trees in full bloom down the mountainside and the roofs of the houses below like a colourful mosaic—and, more importantly, his fiancé is naked beside him, so Yuuri might as well take some time to enjoy the view.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> here are our sources on the exclusive drama: [this thread](https://twitter.com/denkimouse/status/858233578257240064), [this thread](https://twitter.com/AitaiKuji/status/858244452913078273), and [this tweet](https://twitter.com/AitaiKuji/status/858247338506174464). also, the yoi wiki has some excellent reference pictures of [hasetsu castle](http://yurionice.wikia.com/wiki/Hasetsu_Castle). it seems like there are actually a pair of shachihoko on top, as shown irl in [this wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shachihoko) on them.
> 
> and here are some bonus pictures of actual cryptid viktor "butt naked on the roof of a castle" nikiforov: [before](https://68.media.tumblr.com/056dbfff2ab0912468d8a01b0877fea8/tumblr_op65y7PIeF1w02q6io1_540.gif) vs [after](https://68.media.tumblr.com/2c2a34aebd14b726e2b75bae48e4495e/tumblr_op65y7PIeF1w02q6io2_540.jpg).


End file.
